This month’s full Beaver Moon is last supermoon of 2024

Earth and its constant cosmic companion have their final closest encounter of the year tonight with the rise of the Beaver Moon.

This month’s full moon is the last supermoon until October 2025 and the last of a quartet of consecutive supermoons that started in August.

October’s supermoon was the closest and brightest of the four supermoons this year, but tonight’s will be slightly brighter and closer than August’s.

“Supermoon” has been used since 1979 to describe a full moon at its closest approach to Earth.

“The moon doesn’t orbit in a perfect circle,” explains Serena Whitfield in a Nov. 12 “Watch the Skies” NASA blog entry. “Instead, the moon orbits Earth in an ellipse, an oval that brings it closer to and farther from Earth as it travels around.”

The closest point in its orbit — called the perigee — is about 226,000 miles from Earth. So when a full moon happens at or near the perigee, it looks slightly larger and brighter than normal, making it a supermoon.

NASA says while it’s an unofficial term, “supermoon” is typically used to describe a full moon that comes within at least 90% of perigee.

Supermoons happen three to four times a year and are always consecutive.

Moonrise in Hilo is at 5:40 p.m. today. Our lunar partner will come up at 5:44 p.m. in Kailua-Kona and at 5:42 p.m. in Waimea. The moon rises at 5:43 p.m. today on the south side of the island in Nāʻālehu.

Granted, the sun will have just gone down, and it depends on the weather if you’ll be able to fully enjoy the final supermoon of the year.

The National Weather Service forecast shows comfortable temperatures for windward locations, but you’ll likely be dealing with clouds blocking your view.

On the leeward side of the island tonight, same temperature-wise, but clear skies should give way to some impressive views once the sun’s light fades away.

Don’t stress too much if you don’t get a chance tonight.

The Beaver Moon will continue to appear full through just before sunrise Sunday.

Have you been wondering why this entire time it’s called the Beaver Moon? OK. We’ll bite.

“One interpretation is that mid-fall was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps freeze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs,” explains retired NASA program executive Gordon Johnston in a Nov. 13 article. “Another interpretation suggests that the name Beaver Moon came from how active the beavers are in this season as they prepare for winter.”

Johnston adds that the Maine Farmers’ Almanac started publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s, and with time, those names have become widley known and used.

Other names that almanac includes for the November full moon are the Frost Moon, Frosty Moon or Snow Moon.

It’s also not just a full moon named in their honor that connects Earth’s wood-munching mammals to space.

The Beaver Rewilding Project in Idaho is partially funded by a Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences grant awarded by NASA Applied Sciences’ Ecological Conservation Program.

Data collected from NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing missions such as Landsat and Sentinel, which pass over the same large areas of the world regularly throughout seasons, is used by researches at Boise State University and Utah State University working with the project to track how beavers transform the landscape after they arrive.

They can understand the pace and nuance of impacts without having to send teams into the remote areas where the animals are located.

Data are showing the beavers are having a positive impact on the landscape, even making it more resilient to fire and drought.

So be sure to take Whitfield’s advise when it comes to viewing the November full moon: “Enjoy 2024’s last supermoon knowing beavers and space have more in common than you may think!”

Extraterrestrial extras

There are a couple of other celestial treats this weekend gracing the night sky along with the super Beaver Moon.

The “Seven Sisters”

The Pleiades star cluster is an asterism, or pattern of stars or open star cluster, is made up of 1,000-plus stars and located in the Taurus constellation. It can be found just beside the moon. Also called the “Seven Sisters” or Meisser 45, the star cluster is one of the most popular features in the night sky. Their English name is from Greek legend, and the stars represent ocean nymph Pleione’s daughters. The full moon could make seeing most of the stars in the cluster difficult.

Leonids meteor shower

Earth is making its way through leftovers from the tail of comet Tempel-Tuttle, a periodic comet that last swept through our planet’s orbit in 1998. That means we get treated to a spectacular display of bright and colorful shooting stars from the Leonids meteor shower, which will peak with up to 10 or more meteors an hour the nights of Nov. 16-17. They get their name because they seem to radiate from the constellation of Leo, but they are visible across the night sky.